This invention relates to a detergent product formulations which can be packaged in water soluble film.
A product of the invention is ideally for use in the laundering and conditioning of industrial and domestic man-made and/or natural fabrics in semi automatic or automatic washing machines. It may also be used in dishwashers. For convenience purposes it is useful if this can be achieved by means of a soluble single compartment sachet containing varying amounts of bleaching detergents including for example sodium percarbonate. Typically a sachet may be made from a water soluble film such as PVA.
Conventional laundering detergents comprise perborates and zeolites and these compounds are not stable in water soluble film. Previous attempts have been made to manufacture fully built detergent and conditioner systems in a sachet have required a twin compartment sachet manufactured from a perforated film. These fully built detergent and conditioner systems generally contain bleaching agents. Sodium percarbonate is recognised in this field as a bleaching agent. However, use of percarbonate in sachets is not popular as it is unstable when combined with other components of a high moisture content.
Twin compartment sachets have a disadvantage in that they require greater mechanical action to dissolve the sachet and thus have long dispersion times. Also, they are expensive to manufacture.
Additionally, the perforated film used in these twin compartment sachets does not confer a significant shelf life to the components contained within the sachet, wherein the oxidising power of the bleaching agent is reduced.
Also, typically these formulations contain zeolites. These have high moisture content which affects the mechanical properties of the film e.g. the pliability.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a detergent or bleaching agent for cleaning in laundries, or in domestic washing machines or dishwashers which is stable within a water soluble film.
According to the present invention there is provided a granulated percarbonate compound suitable for use in cleaning products wherein the percarbonate compound has been mixed with an encapsulating blend.
Preferably the encapsulating blend comprises sulphate, carboxy methyl cellulose and nonionic surfactant.
The invention further provides an encapsulation blend comprising sodium sulphate, carboxymethyl cellulose and a nonionic surfactant blend.
Suitably the surfactant is an alkyl (C6 to C12) aryl polyglycol ethoxylate (phenol ethoxylate).
Suitably the percarbonate granules have a size of not less than 150 microns.
The invention further provides a detergent formulation comprising sodium percarbonate, carboxy methyl cellulose, sodium sulphate, nonionic surfactant blend, soldium silicate and sodium tripolyphosphate and not including zeolites or perborates.
The detergent may further comprise at least one ingredient chosen from the group comprising linear alkylbenzene sulphonate, sodium carbonate, low foam wetting agent, perfumes, cationic surfactant, optical brighteners, salts, pigments and enzymes.
In one embodiment the detergent formulation is a laundering product.
In an alternative embodiment the detergent is a machine dishwashing product.
Suitably the laundry or dishwashing product according to the present invention is packaged in PVA film. A product of the invention is stable in PVA film compared to other products containing zeolites and perborates.
Suitably the film is 20-80 microns thick.
The product may be incorporated into a tablet form.
The granulated form of percarbonate in the above permits efficient bleaching action of the laundry product whilst not effecting the stability of the product in storage.